Work of Mouth: Still One of the Keys to Good Publicity

Recently, when I was visiting the Allbusiness.com headquarters to be videotaped I met Kristin Tieche, a Northern California-based independent producer and editor. She has edited award-winning programming for many national cable and satellite networks such as PBS, CBS–5 (KPIX), Link TV, Fine Living Channel, Food Network, Home and Garden, Smithsonian On Demand and Current TV. She has also edited various independent and documentary films, including the Sundance 2008 Audience Award winning Fuel, about biodiesel and the nation’s addiction to oil.

Kristin also is co-founder and co-editor of Velo Vogue, a popular blog focusing on San Francisco’s vibrant and stylish bicycle culture. The blog hosts new content daily and is intended to inspire greater use of the bicycle as a safe and dignified means of urban transportation.

Kristin holds a Master of Arts in Television, Radio and Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she received awards from the regional chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in screenwriting and sound design. It is her passion to create meaningful, quality content for television, film and new media that shows viewers new perspectives on current and historical issues dealing with sustainability and social responsibility.

With so many blogs out there, I got a little curious about Kristin’s efforts to promote her cool blog. Here’s part two of my conversation with Kristin:

Leslie: What do you attribute to the blog’s continued growth?

Kristin: Mostly our readership grows by word-of-mouth. People in San Francisco talk about our blog, and tell their friends to read it. When we launched we did a massive push to link to and from other popular bike and bike fashion blogs. That helped us get exposure a lot. Now we do occasional Google searches to see who is linking to us, and we link back to them. I also use Twitter. We get new followers daily, and we, in turn, follow them.

I also post our best posts on my Facebook profile. If we’re profiling someone, I’ll post the link on their Facebook profile as well, so their friends can catch on to what we’re doing on our blog and potentially become fans. The next step would be to create a V?lo Vogue fan page on Facebook.

We are also developing t-shirt and sticker designs, which we’ll use to promote our site in public by people wearing the t-shirts or putting stickers on their bikes.

Leslie: What’s your advice to others who’d like to blog?

Blogging is very time-consuming and can be addictive! You absolutely must love what you blog about. It’s got to be your passion. Otherwise it’s not fun anymore. But once you’re in the blogging community, it’s a great place to be! I’ve been interviewed by the media for what we are doing on V?lo Vogue. I hope that our efforts to promote bicycle use as a viable and stylish form of transportation inspire people everywhere to get back on their bikes and ride on!